The Consummate Gardener

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Yule or whatever you celebrate this holiday season. No, you can't plant poinsettias in North Florida this month, but what wou...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2015/12/month-by-month-in-north-florida-what-to.html

July is a month of anticipation in North Florida, because most of our fall/winter crops are planted in August. There are only a few veggies you can start from seed in July, but there is still tim...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2017/07/month-by-month-in-north-florida-what-to.html

May is when the heat usually hits North Florida, and we consider it the beginning of summer. Not much will grow from seed this time of year, in fact this year (2017) has been so hot that my peppe...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2017/05/month-by-month-in-north-florida-what-to.html

Beginnings of the South Facing Garden, 2015When I moved here, I had NO money and the soil was horrid -- pure sand.  People told me I couldn't do permaculture in this tiny space, but I didn't...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2021/02/what-does-permaculture-mean-to-you.html

The garden is out of control.For the next two weeks, I will be getting rid of probably 75% of the containerized plants in the courtyard and digging out a lot of ornamentals in the outside gardens...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2020/08/konmari-ing-garden.html

Doesn't look like an edible? Keep reading to find out what it is. I decided last year I was going to transition over from ornamentals to edibles in my gardens. Having very little gardening space,...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2020/05/edibles-planted-in-garden-may-2020.html

Giant Peace Lily in from the cold NOTE: This is a post I put into draft back in February and never finished, so here it is, as far as I got with it. This is the most frustrating time of year for ...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2020/05/garden-diary-february-16-2020.html

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, and I don't have time right now to post pictures, but here's a bit of what's been happening lately in the gardens. I've been trying to get rid of a lot of my...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2020/05/garden-diary-may-16-2020-big-garden.html

I've been happily propagating and adding to my plant collection over 40 years and here for the past 4 years. I came here with 10 plants and now, due to the kindness of friends, mostly, have liter...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/08/hurricanes-aging-and-learning-to-face.html

Uh-Oh! Just realized that August is nearly over and I forgot to post this. Hope you found it from the link in the sidebar, but you have plenty of time to get things in the ground this month, plus...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2014/07/north-florida-month-to-month-what-to.html

NOTE: I forgot all about this post. I'm publishing it without many pictures for now because June is half over and I want to get it up. Sorry about that. It's been a busy month. June is a harsh mo...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/06/month-to-month-in-north-florida-what-to.html

I have had so much trouble with a lack of sun in my gardens. My courtyard gets some afternoon sun, but not enough to plant full-sun vegetables. Still, the bananas seem to grow tall enough to reac...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/04/garden-diary-april-11-2019-turning.html

April is the last planting month for many vegetables in North Florida before the heat of summer comes. There are actually very few vegetables you can still start from seed, but you can still use ...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2015/04/month-by-month-in-north-florida-what-to.html

It's a nice, cool, cloudy day here in Gainesville, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to work on the newer front bed up by the fence. I'd stuck a few things up there, but it really was just tr...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/03/garden-diary-march-16-2019-my-nearly.html

The warm weather has come too soon, and I lost out on the cool weather I needed to get the beds ready for planting. I don't know if I'll be able to accomplish all that I had planned, because I si...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/02/garden-diary-feb-23-2019-overwhelmed.html

I couldn't wait any more, so I went and whacked  back the Christmas cassia (Cassia bicapsularis) and the Cranberry hibiscus (H. acetosella). I was going to do the confederate rose too, but I...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/02/garden-diary-feb-1-2019-drastic-pruning.html

I frequent one particular gardening forum, and I hesitate to post at times, because I realize some of my posts are sort of silly to serious gardeners. I post about getting excited over cuttings r...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/01/maintaining-your-childlike-sense-of.html

I don't really like very cold, freezing weather, which is why I moved to Florida. I moved from SW Florida to North Florida because I missed the seasons. I wanted a short winter where things actua...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/01/garden-diary-january-21-2019.html

2019 is a year of out with the old, in with the new for me. I started this garden with the hopes of growing food, but that didn't work out well at all. There is absolutely no full sun, so most of...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2019/01/garden-diary-january-1-2019-drastic.html

January is one of the coldest months in North Florida, but it's a great month for starting veggies for your spring garden. Put your potatoes in the ground this month, and start some tomatoes from...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2015/01/month-by-month-in-north-florida-what-to.html

Cranberry Hibiscus in Bloom As those of you who have been reading this blog since I moved to this apartment know, my gardens here are an ongoing experiment. At first, I planted anything I could g...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2018/11/garden-diary-november-18-2018-starting.html

Peacock Gingers and Wandering Jew under the Hibiscus This was the first year I used fertilizer on my gardens, and I wish I hadn't. I was committed to growing organically, but things didn't seem t...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2018/09/garden-diary-september-30-2018-garden.html

My beautiful hibiscus, which was killed back to the ground by the freeze this past January, has finally put out its first bloom. What a beautiful site after the disaster I have been faced with si...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2018/09/garden-diary-september-24-2018-yard.html

The sun comes up later now , but the mornings are staying cooler longer, which allows me to get much more done. Yesterday, I had an orgy of transplanting rooted cuttings and repotting potbound pl...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2018/09/garden-diary-september-2-2018-potting.html

Beautiful calla lilies are wonderful container plants for spring blooms. September is the main planting month for fall/winter crops in North Florida, so get out your shovels and get to work! All ...

http://www.theconsummategardener.com/2016/09/month-by-month-in-north-florida-what-to.html